On Tuesday I had an agriculture seminar in Katonga village. I was the only teacher for this seminar and Julius just interpreted for me. I taught on goat health and treatment as well as poultry vaccinations. We got there right on time and of course no one was there so I just set up a bench under the big tree by the shore and played with all the kids there. The seminar was soon underway and all was going well. I had noticed that it is a custom here to keep the baby goats away from their mother all day. So I saw one of the little ones was really weak and I could see all of its ribs. I had someone go and fetch the baby goat for me and I began to speak against this custom, explaining how the relationship between momma goat and baby goat works and the feeding habits. I also said it will make the mom dry up quicker if you do it like this. They also don't make any water available to the little ones all day. You would have thought I just introduced the most earth shattering idea. It created this huge argument. We were all standing up and it was flurry of Luganda and English. Julius basically blew the whistle on the meeting and we said our thank you's and walked away. Haha. But over the next few days of visiting the village, I saw fewer and fewer baby goats hanging around. Either they were with their moms or they hid the goats from the crazy muzungu.
On Wednesday was my last prayer meeting for Katonga village. There is a culture thing here that always breaks my heart. The fact that kids are just an annoyance. It's so frustrating. They get chased away from church with switches broken off the nearest tree. During prayer meetings they crowd around the door and then get yelled at to leave. Children here are just dispensable and replaceable and unimportant. At the beginning of this prayer meeting the children began to gather around the door and pastor Phillip got up and walked toward the door. I braced myself for the heartache of watching the kids get shooed away. But something different happened... Phillip grabbed the first kid and pulled him inside and popped him right in the middle of the floor and then went after the next one. Then Olivah stood up and helped Phillip usher in ALL the kids and had them sit on the floor. So the room was packed with adults and the kids took up every square inch of floor space. I was over the moon excited about this. I couldn't believe the obedience and love for Christ that was flowing from these two Africans that they would go head on with their culture and do things differently. Phillip was later asked about this by Keeky and he replied, well of course I would do that. It says in the Bible... And he continued to, on the spot, quote the whole passage about Jesus talking about the children. I was so excited to be able to tell a story from the Bible with all the kids there. So I told the story of Elijah on mountain with the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah and with the two alters. I emphasized on the whole speech that Elijah gives about, "How long will you waver between two opinions?!" It was good for them because some of the very practices that the prophets did in the story actually happen with witch doctors today, even the cutting of their own bodies and everything and their gods didn't answer them. But the Lord answered with power. Then I challenged them, how long were they going to waver between two opinions? Like the woman I heard about on the village that is a born again but still does witch craft for her business. She totally didn't see what was wrong with that. It was awesome to tell the story and then hear the responses. They even asked me to tell it over again. Haha.
On Thursday I went down and taught some of the women how to hoof trim their goats. What I think happened though was they got a someone to trim their goat hooves for free. Haha. But any time spent in Katonga village is well worth it. Oh also this week was my going away meal. We had chicken and fish! What a treat! And no bugs! Al least, not that I knew of. Then I spent the weekend just hanging out and reading. Then Sunday was my last church service on the island. It was great. I wish I had more time because I love how the kids now come in and fight for a spot next to me and we have fun drawing in my notebook. After that all the ladies of Katonga walked me back to the base and we said our goodbyes. I cried as I walked back to the building knowing I might not see some of them again on this earth, but I'm thankful for the hope in Christ that we will be together in eternity with Him. Then I hopped on the boat with my few bags and headed back to the mainland to spend my last few days in Jinja with the Peterson family. My flight leaves here Thursday night at 11:30 pm, so that's 3:30 pm back at home for those of you who want to pray for my flights. Then I should land in Chicago around 2:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Can't wait to see everyone, but I so want to just stay here... Can someone just ship my family over here? Thanks. Haha.
No comments:
Post a Comment